Educational Opportunities

Master of Arts: Family Ministry

Leon Blanchette, Ed.D., Coordinator

Core Values
Program Format
Admission Requirements
Graduation Requirements
Curriculum

The Master of Arts in Family Ministry at Olivet Nazarene University provides a broad and powerful education for specialized ministry in the local church. The M.A. in Family Ministry focuses on ministry to the entire family in today's culture in a local church context.  It integrates theory and praxis, reflection and life. It is a two-year program. The first year provides a traditional classroom-based education. During the second year, the student engages in a mentored ministry in a full-time capacity, coming back to Olivet for several one-week intensive courses called modules. The mentor is a seasoned professional.

The M.A. in Family Ministry draws strength from leading experts in the fields of children, youth, and family ministry who come to campus for face-to-face teaching, encounters, networking, and learning with our students. The combination of these experts with our own experienced residential faculty, who total over 60 years of highly successful experience in children and youth ministry, makes Olivet's M.A. in Family Ministry a powerful educational experience that will launch the student into a satisfying career of service for our Lord to families of the 21^st century.

Core Values Motivating the M.A. in Family Ministry

1.   Integration: To integrate what the student learns in the classroom with the experience and practice of ministry in concrete settings.

2.   Intentionality: Not only to integrate theory and praxis, but to do so consciously, clearly, explicitly and intentionally. Not to let anyone -- faculty or student -- forget the need for and the practice of integration.

3.   Theological reflection: The faculty members in the M.A. in Family Ministry believe that there are right ways and wrong ways to speak about God with young people and their families and communities. The goal is to encourage each student to grasp the theological foundations and implications of every aspect of ministry.

4.   Multiple voices: Students in the Family Ministry program should hear a variety of voices, including other students. And yet, perhaps somewhat paradoxically, students quite appropriately put a high value on quality interaction with the professor. To achieve these twin goals, we have structured our program with modules, half-semesters (called blocks), and semesters, enabling Olivet to bring in the complementary voices that the ministry community appreciates and the student deserves to hear.

5.   Mentoring: Mentoring goes "way beyond" mere programming. The mentoring model in the M.A. in Family Ministry can and should become a lifelong style for productive ministry. The student should learn a mode of human interaction that will sustain the student in later life and ministry, both as one who mentors and as one who is mentored.

6.   Leadership:  A key to success in ministry is understanding the characteristics of a leader.  Developing the student to be a leader is a key component of the MA in Family Ministry.

7.   Lifelong learner: We seek to give the individual the tools and to reinforce the desire to become "global Christians" who seek to understand and who have the tools to understand the ever-changing climate of our global community.

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Program Format

More than most master's programs, the M.A. in Family Ministry uses a wide assortment of course formats and teaching methods: intensive modules, half-semester courses, full-semester courses, lecturing, mentoring, internships, seminars, papers, and projects.

A modular course meets for one week, normally Monday through Friday, on Olivet's campus. A modular course requires appropriate non-campus study before that week and additional off-campus study after that week. To complete the work done before and after the module, the student must have computer access to the internet. While students in the M.A. in Family Ministry take a few modular courses during their first year, they take all their courses as modules during their second year. This allows the second-year students to engage in their mentored ministry experience on a full-time basis and gives them the option to do that mentored experience at locations quite distant from Olivet's campus in Bourbonnais, Illinois. The modular courses are offered in August, January, and May. The program culminates in an Integrated Seminar during the final August of the second year, where the students present their projects and bring all the facets of their Olivet education in family ministry into a coherent whole.

During the first year, the student takes 30 hours of course work. During the second year, the students take only 18 hours, thus allowing the second year student to focus on the mentored experience in youth ministry. The total program is 48 hours.

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Admission Requirements

Olivet Nazarene University carefully assesses applicants for the M.A. in Family Ministry program on the basis of evidence provided in all application materials. Therefore, while a personal interview is not required, application materials must be prepared thoroughly, thoughtfully, and professionally for full consideration. Applications will be processed upon receipt of all required materials.

To be admitted into Olivet Nazarene University's Master of Arts in Family Ministry program, an applicant must meet these prerequisites:

1.   Submit a completed Olivet Nazarene University application form.

2.   Possess a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited college or university with a grade point average of 2.7 or better (4.0 scale).

3.   Submit an official transcript* of the student's undergraduate college work and of any graduate work being used to support the application for admission.  * Official Transcript: A transcript with the registrar's seal from the institution granting credit sent directly to Olivet Nazarene University, School of Theology and Christian Ministry, Attn: Graduate Program Specialist, One University Avenue Box 6048, Bourbonnais, IL 60914-2345.

4.   The applicant should have completed at least 36 semester hours of undergraduate courses in religion and ministry, including 12 hours of Bible (hermeneutics, OT intro, NT Intro, and an upper-division exegesis course), 6 hours of church history (ancient through Reformation and a polity course), 9 hours of theology (systematic theology I and II and, if Nazarene, doctrine of holiness), and 9 hours of practical ministry (Christian education, pastoral care and counseling, and Christian worship). Students whose undergraduate preparation is deficient in these areas may apply for conditional admission, if they satisfy the other requirements. Rules and deadlines for making up the deficiency will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

5.   Demonstrate the ability to succeed as a graduate student in Olivet's M.A. in Family Ministry program, as evidenced by three recommendations. One should be from a person able to speak about the applicant's academic ability, one from a pastor or other person who can speak to the applicant's Christian life, and one that is personal. The personal recommendation may be a second academic reference, or it may be a reference from a work or ministry supervisor. If the person making the pastoral reference is not also a supervisor, then a reference from a supervisor is especially appropriate.

6.   Submit a $25 application fee.

7.   Possess a moral character consistent with attendance at a Christian university.

8.   Demonstrate the ability and discipline necessary to pursue rigorous graduate-level studies.

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Time Limits

A student is allowed four years from beginning the first graduate course to complete the entire program in the M.A in Family Ministry. Coursework beyond four years is evaluated by the Program Coordinator for the M.A. in Family Ministry, or the Director of Graduate Studies, or the Dean of the School of Theology & Christian Ministry. Students granted permission for more than four years may be expected to meet current program requirements, and that may mean retaking one or more courses.

Graduation Requirements

To graduate, students must meet the following requirements.

1.   Successful completion of the approved curriculum for the Master of Arts in Family Ministries, with a minimum of 48 graduate semester hours of coursework. A course may be repeated one time if it carries a different subtitle.

2.   A cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better. None of the 48 credit hours submitted for graduation may carry a grade of less than B-.

3.   Fulfill all general graduation requirements of the School of Graduate and Continuing Studies.

4.   Fulfill the curriculum requirements as stated below.

The student must complete all the courses in the following curriculum. Note: the following calendar is tentative and may be changed. It is provided only to help the student see the entire "course map" of the master's program in Family Ministry. (A block is a half-semester, block 1 being the first half and block 2 the second.) While in most cases there will be no alternative, it is not a part of the curricular requirement for graduation that the student take the course at the time listed below. All courses are three hours.

First Year: Emphasis on the Classroom

Second Year: Emphasis on the Practicum

For more information about the M.A. in Family Ministry, including planning during your undergraduate years, please contact the Graduate Religion office by phone at 815-928-5670 or by e-mail at onugradreligion@olivet.edu.

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